After being appointed on July 20, 2009, McCardell was Ambassador to Libya before the 2011 Libyan civil war.
[2] In February 2012, it was reported that McCardell's spouse, Edis Zagorac, was hired by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to work as part of a military-civilian engineering unit with billions in contracts with the Gadhafi regime, including a $270 million prison project.
Following the discovery, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird requested a review into the potential for conflicts of interest, to which nothing was found.
In 2015, she became High Commissioner of Canada in South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Mauritius and Ambassador to Madagascar.
[2] She is also a former political advisor at the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.